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HP TouchPad Go: $99?
redletterdave writes "The HP TouchPad Go, which is a smaller version of the company's signature TouchPad, may go on sale for $99 like its predecessor. The tablet features a 1023 x 768 resolution display, runs on webOS, and also has a removable cover with soft-touch coating to minimize fingerprints on the 7-inch screen. HP's new tablet also comes with a removable battery, 32GB of storage, a 3G radio, a five-megapixel camera and LED flash. HP designed the TouchPad Go around the same time as the larger model, but it failed to reach production stages when the company decided to kill off all devices running on the doomed webOS. If the tablet indeed sells for $99, it would be the cheapest tablet in the world besides the Aakash tablet, which was released by the Indian government for $35."
A story speculating that devices may or may not exist that HP may or may not sell at a price which might or might not be $99, without so much as a hint that there is evidence suggesting they ever actually *made* any production-level product beyond pre-release testing and evaluation units. Given the Touchpad Go's schedule probably wouldn't have had it in mass production at the time HP killed the product line, it seems unlikely that they would have gone forward with production, unless their supply chain already had them over a barrel (which was allegedly the cause of the second wave of firesale, the third being to flush out returns). The problem is any thinking right now is merely speculation.
I'd probably take the plunge and get it if offered just for a WebOS device to play with (I have a few Palm Pres, but it's hard to justify playing with them when my Android phone has much better hardware in every way (bigger, higher resolution screen, faster processors, 4 times the ram, a camera that actually focuses, etc) and actually has support for things like Netflix.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
That said, having one of the original TouchPads myself, I love the Touchstone charging and WebOS really is beautiful for a tablet. I would definitely purchase a Go if I could, since it's the same thing in a smaller package that would be nicer for tossing in my backpack.
... the fact that this tablet will never see the light of day puts a rather large damper on the party.
P.S. The only one of these ever sold was on eBay a month or so ago for over $700
Get over yourself.
I think the problem is everyone is dreaming of iMoney and thus making them overpowered and thus expensive. I mean think about it, what does the typical consumer do with a pad? They check their email, play Angry birds, and watch video. Now the video could be easily taken care of with a broadcom chip which is cheap, especially when you are buying in bulk, I doubt Angry birds is that big of a CPU hog, and email and webpages aren't gonna need much if you disallow flash support.
So I don't see why someone couldn't make a really nice tablet in the $180-$200 price range and make around $10-$15 a unit on them. A dualcore ARM CPU in the 1GHz range isn't that high and resistive will work fine for the screen as long as the OS is tweaked for it instead of just using a vanilla OS unoptimized for the platform like many are doing with android now. So while $100 might not be doable I don't see why sub $200 while still doing the tasks folks want a tablet for couldn't be achieved.
Personally i thought Dell had the right idea with that convertible netbook/tablet but screwed up with the choice of chip and the price which was too high for an atom based unit. Make it an AMD E-50 so it has enough power to do 1080P over HDMI, it'll also play games and even let them run their Windows programs, and price it for around $350 and the things would sell like hotcakes. Sadly american companies have all looked at Apple and see iMoney and frankly just won't accept 5%-8% profits on sales anymore as they all want to be Apple and make mounds of iCash anymore. But there is only one Apple and if this past year and a half has proved anything its that if you set your price equal or better than the iPad people will go with the more recognized brand. But if they were to target the masses with a machine that's "good enough" at the right price point there isn't any reason they can't make good steady profits year after year.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.